Program Information
Use of Freeware Business Intelligence Software to Trend TG-142 Compliant Linac QA Parameters
A Ayan*, D DiCostanzo , J Woollard , N Gupta , Ohio State University Columbus, OH
Presentations
SU-F-P-43 (Sunday, July 31, 2016) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose:To develop a software platform to track linac QA parameter trends using readily available freeware business intelligence (BI) software
Methods:Spreadsheets were used to collect QA data by many, if not all, institutions; but the trending analysis with data from separate spreadsheets could be a cumbersome task. A freeware version of the Microsoft Power BI software was adapted to trend linac QA parameters to allow us to maintain nine dosimetrically equivalent linacs. A monthly QA spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) has been used in our institution to collect QA data. We developed a C# computer program to mine QA data from spreadsheets in an automated way and store in a SQL database. The program runs every night automatically, crawls down a predetermined directory in a network hard-drive where all data spreadsheets are saved and searches for new data. If new data are found, they are written into the database. The implemented BI software reads QA data from the database and provides users with dynamic data trending interface as dashboards. The BI dashboard was configured to dynamically filter and drill down to specific parameters and conditions. This enables users to see the existence or missing data for specific tests and trends of linac parameters potentially alerting actions to be taken.
Results:The developed software platform has been in use since 2015. More than 7680 data points corresponding to TG-142 compliant monthly QAs for nine linacs were automatically retrieved and stored in the database. The developed dashboard has provided access to data for physicists enabling them to dissect the data to observe trends in different parameters in just a few mouse clicks.
Conclusion:The developed BI dashboard has been an invaluable tool providing a common data analysis platform for a quick and easy access to all linac QA parameters and their trends.
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